This final installment of the series on fixing IndyCar was going to start with a rant about how IndyCar needs to market to a younger audience on a national scale.

As if they were reading my minds, this morning I happened upon this trailer for Turbo, the IndyCar movie currently in development with DreamWorks.

It’s targeted directly at kids and families. It’s in 3D. The detail in the animation gave me chills. I could have done without the flying car, but I’ll accept that as a minor failing.

I don’t think anyone should be counting chickens just yet… but man, this thing looks like it might actually work.

Thank you, Randy, a thousand times. May this become your legacy.

I still have a few other points to make, though. (Naturally.)

First: it’s so very, very critical that IndyCar not make its classic mistake of putting all of its marketing eggs in one basket with this. (Danica, anyone?)

In the six months IndyCar has between now and when this movie comes out, I desperately hope that every available resource will be put into fixing the other issues within the sport as laid out in the earlier installments in this series. It would be so incredibly heartbreaking to see people flock to the sport in response to Turbo only to be driven away just as quickly by all of IndyCar’s persistent failings.

And I also hope that IndyCar is working on following up the film’s release with a national-scale marketing campaign to cement brand recognition with the general public. IndyCar’s promotion model has been stuck in the early 1990s for far, far too long — there was once a time when track promoters and television partners could be counted on to do sufficient marketing on their own that the sanctioning body could stay out of the equation, but that time has passed. Those entities are now concerned about their own bottom lines and no one else’s, and so these days it’s IndyCar’s job alone to introduce people to its product. I’ve written about this before in more detail, so I’ll link to that discussion here. (Paul disagreed with me in that one, of course. Silly Paul.)

Finally: I promised up front that the final part of this series would include a discussion of how IndyCar will know whether these measures are working.

The obvious measure of success is increased TV ratings, sponsor interest, and butts on the aluminum, of course. No one needs me to point that out.

But there are other, more subtle things that will change before these more evident things do. Primary among them: fans will be… happier.

There’s an undercurrent in the culture at 16th and Georgetown of people who believe that many fans will simply never be happy and there’s no point in trying to please them. That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Everyone single one of us wants to love every aspect of IndyCar without fail.

If things work when they’re supposed to, the dissent within the paddock goes away (or at least appears to), and more efforts are made by IndyCar to put their drivers’ immense talents and personalities on display and to show fans they’re appreciated, an amazing thing will happen: people will complain a lot less. They’ll start spending a lot more time talking about the things they’re supposed to be talking about, like driver skill, team strategy, and the on-track action, and the negativity will fade into the background.

It can happen, I promise, if the right people will believe in and invest in the right changes.

I really hope they stop putting eggs into one basket. There are signs they’ve learned: This new Off-Season video series may be a little naff but that’s fine, even if the execution is a little off it is the right idea, it gets different faces seen and it sends out the message that IndyCar drivers are *more fun* than other drivers in other series.

Rather than being the ‘tough’ series as Steph suggested before, why not be the ‘good time’ series? The place you go to have fun instead of the super-serious F1 or the long drawn-out NASCAR or sportscar races. Not that I know how to balance that with the seriousness of the title chase.
Part of US open wheel folklore is the drivers, with some exceptions(!), like each other and are friends away from the track – something I think was started by Greg Moore, Franchitti and that gang? That’s quite unusual in top line motorsport, maybe even sport in general. Really hope the younger guys coming through take that spirit and run with it, looks like Hinch & Newgarden are.
Obviously there’s a bit of needle here and there on the grid as well, hi Graham and Marco.

I hope they promote their champion a little more than usual, and him being American ought to help that. Sending him to the Race of Champions was a *great* idea, something that should be an annual occurrence. Shame the RoC just happened to have a dud year coverage-wise (holding it Bangkok was never going to work and removing the live web feed was stupid).

I hope Turbo lowers the demographic and brings a few eyeballs. I can’t help but think releasing in July is a bad idea in terms of tie-in with the 500, surely you want to get it out in April/May. I’m betting this was a studio decision not an IndyCar decision. It doesn’t get released over here until October, but that’s not really relevant.

A bit off-topic, as obviously the focus HAS to be on North American TV first, but I recently discovered the UK viewing figures for the first half of the season. They are diabolical. If you sat the viewers in one place they would barely fill Iowa Speedway. I had no idea it was that bad. Sky does hardly any promotion of the series, not even on their dedicated F1 channel which really ought to be airing IndyCar instead of Sky Sports 4. IMO the blame is theirs. I’d much rather the rights were taken by ITV4 or even Eurosport (who famously bumped CART around horribly, but get better ratings).http://f1broadcasting.wordpress.com/2012/06/21/skys-indycar-scheduling-this-weekend/

Steph,
Great series! I have been closely following IndyCar racing for over 23 years.
My only concern is that are the people that can make these changes are either not reading this or even paying attention even if they do read it.
One suggestion is have is that each year there is a fund so that 1-2 promising drivers are funded for that year so they can get their career started and that IndyCar can continue to have an infusion of good new blood and exciting drivers.

Great series Steph. While we vary on some thoughts, the overall message is the same. I do wish more people in Indycar saw the value in video games. F1, Nascar and ALMS have all slapped their names or teams in games the last two years. Also the folks at IMS license the rights to the speedway but never the series. I cannot imagine the thoughts behind this. It’s almost as if Indy is considered only a Nascar oval and road course.

I think gaming targets a bigger market, if done right, than a movie about a driving snail will. I think Turbo will be good, I just question the mass appeal.

I really enjoyed reading this series…did not always agree with your position but felt it was presented very well.

Here is the one “problem” that I am having with a lot of fans and commentators alike. Most people really enjoyed the close, competitive racing in 2012. It felt like anyone had a chance to win each week. It made watching the races exciting.
But a lot of these same people are calling for engine innovation and aero kits which in my opinion would lead to separation between the have and have not teams. Lets face it…if there was innovation in engine design…Penske, Ganassi and Andretti are at a big advantage cause they have the money to support it.

While I think it is good to point out and discuss the issues with Indycar, that seems to be the first thing a lot of “fans” want to bring up. If I was a new fan or someone considering watching the series, why would I waste my time and money on a series that the current “fans” thought was screwed up. This includes constantly complaining about the lack of horsepower or ugly car or speeds etc. When I talk to my friends who are Nascar or F1 fans, they don’t spend the whole time bashing their series. They acknowledge that there are issues but tend to focus on the positive. When I listen to people talk about Indycar…it is usually the negative stuff they bring up first and often.

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